Front Wheel Drivetrains were developed to make it cheaper to build cars. As FWD technology was refined and efficiency rose, hot new FWD vehicles started appearing, led by the charge of European hot hatches. The Japanese took it as their mantra, and over the course of the 90s, embraced FWD as the cash cow it would be for them. When you think of cool Japanese FWD cars, you automatically think “Honda”, but that's not the entire story. Toyota has had some very affordable front driven cars which won the hearts of enthusiasts, throwing further fuel into the whole Honda-Toyota rivalry. This week, we compiled a list of the hottest front-driven Toyotas.

Ae9x Toyota Levin/Trueno – The first time Toyota's lightweight Corolla based sports car came with Front Wheel Drive, it outraged people. Enthusiasts simply couldn't wrap their heads around a Levin or Trueno which wouldn't slide around corners. That'd be unfair, because the AE9x generation came with a supple, capable chassis and some very good engines. They also looked pretty damn cool.

St183 Toyota ED 2.0 X – The ST183 ED came with a thuggish 3SGE engine, 4 wheel disc brakes, 4 wheel steering, a hardtop body style, finely honed aerodynamics, retro-cool semi bucket  seats, and a very affordable price tag not much higher than what you pay for a regular ED. You can pick one up in decent condition for about 2-2.5 lakh taka (but be weary of catastrophic depreciation). 

St202 Toyota Celica – While the Celica GT-Four version of the ST202 is the more famous one because of its rallying heritage, the basic front wheel drive version offers cheaper thrills and almost equal sized grins. 3SGE, buckets of tuning potential and, an Aston Martin DB7 inspired rear design made it a big hit with enthusiasts. 

Xv50 Toyota Camry – Okay so it's the (relatively) boring one here. The Camry, the best selling car in the US for almost a decade straight, has always been the unassuming entry level luxury sedan, hiding a good amount of power and torque behind its bulky looks. Full throttle, the Camry will surprise you.

Ae111 Toyota Levin BZR – Often touted as Toyota's best front wheel drive offering to date, the BZR was a track focused, lightweight sports car. With the legendary Black Top 4AGE engine powering it, the Levin just needed high performance brakes and a limited slip differential to be transformed into a Honda eater, and Toyota supplied all of that and more in the BZR.

Ep91 Toyota Starlet Glanza V Turbo – Take a super lightweight hatchback and put in a 1.3 liter, intercooled, turbocharged 4EFTE engine. What you get is an economical city car with a super responsive turbo which is easy to boost, matched with zippy handling.

NZZE120 Toyota Corolla T-Sport – A hit in the UK, the T-sport received the adoration of automotive journalists far and wide, many of whom would go on to label it a worthy alternative to the EP3 Honda Civic Type R, the king among hot hatch kings. It happens to be powered by the same 2ZZGE engine found in our Axio feature car (above).